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Precinct
Consolidation
If you had told me 5 years ago we
would be eliminating four of our precincts in a large
consolidation plan I would have told you that you were
crazy. I
guess with the present county administration anything
can now be considered possible.
It is like they sold the public the
"Brooklyn Bridge"!
The scenario goes like this: we will take a large
modern metropolitan police department which once had
4000 police officers, of which over 500 were
supervisors, operating out of eight local precincts,
shrink them down to 2300 officers with 320 supervisors
operating out of 4 grossly oversized precincts, and we
will deliver the same services as before.
Don't believe it?
Well I find it hard to believe that the general
public, or for that matter the county administration,
can actually believe that claim.
In a County of 1.3 million residents that means
each precinct will contain approximately 300,000 people.
Even if you factor in the Village departments, I am sure
the number is approaching one-quarter of a million
residents per precinct.
In comparison, if you take the population of NYC
(8 Million) and divide it into their 76 precincts you
can see their precinct size would probably average
around 100,000 residents per command.
Yet our administration claims that we will
continue to deliver quality services to every community
in each command even with these staffing numbers.
At a time when burglaries are skyrocketing in the
county, things can only get worse.
It is a perfect recipe for increased crime.
All the factors are there: poor economy, high
gold prices, no cops,
and unemployment and entitlement benefit cuts.
Just like the late 1970's, the scenario for more
home break ins and street robberies is here.
When will the public see through this and demand
that the county stop the dismantlement of this
department?
So why embark upon this
consolidation? It
is not about efficiency or because each police car is a
"mini police precinct" on wheels as claimed,
it is about decimating the ranks of the SOA to save
money. Make
no mistake about it, since we are the high wage earners,
this consolidation came on our backs.
None of the other unions have suffered as we did.
The only goal in this plan was to eliminate
police supervisors.
This coming at the same time our new Commissioner
is stating that his goal is to increase supervision and
hold supervisors strictly accountable.
Yet the Commissioner publicly stated that he
endorses this plan.
How does that work?
You eliminate over 40 supervisors and your goal
is to increase supervision?
Is that written somewhere in Iannone's book on
police supervision?
This coming when our numbers are at an all time
low, probably about the supervisory level we had during
the 1940's! More
and more commands will operate, including the new
community centers, with absolutely no supervisors
present. But
if there is a problem somewhere they will look for a
supervisor to blame it on, that I am sure of.
Just remember the example of Lt. William Calley
from the My Lai incident in Vietnam, of the 14 officers
charged, right up to the Major General, only the 2nd Lt.
was convicted. They
always need a scapegoat!
And just decreasing our numbers will
not be enough. We
are prepared to proceed if they violate our MOA's on
flying, vacation picks, days off, etc.
We feel that we are in a good position to
challenge any violations of these agreements and we will
file grievances as they occur.
It is going to be a whole new round of labor
unrest that will not end for some time.
All because the Legislature, controlled by the
Republicans, refuse to raise much needed revenue,
through even a minimal tax increase.
When does it stop, when they declare bankruptcy?
I wonder if the public would have voted
themselves a $10/month tax increase to save the
precincts had they put this up for a referendum like the
Coliseum deal. I
know that, as a county resident, I would have definitely
voted for it!
Legislation
Update – Albany
The
newest development this year in Albany is the passage of
Tier VI for all members hired after April 1, 2012.
While any new police officer the County hires
will be a Tier VI member, they will be a
non-contributory member if hired before the expiration
of our contract on December 31, 2015.
This means that all the provisions of Tier VI
will apply to them except the mandatory contributions to
the pension plan. Only
members hired after the expiration of the contract will
have to contribute.
The reason for this is that the PBA contract
contains the provision that all members will be in a
non-contributory pension plan and the provisions in Tier
V, which were not changed in TierVI, exempt any new hire
from the contributory part if hired under an existing
contract that provides this benefit.
I am sure the framers of Tier V never envisioned
a contract lasting as long as ours does, but
nevertheless this is one occasion where our multi-year
contract paid off for any new hires.
However, one can only guess, given the County's
fiscal situation, when any new hiring will actually
occur.
I
gave you a brief overview of the new Tier in an email
sent to members, but I will repeat the highlights here.
While I can't say any of us on the Legislative Committee
were overjoyed by the outcome, the time we spend in
Albany did pay off.
The fact that we were able to hold onto the most
important parts of our pension plan, that being a
defined benefit plan with 20 year retirement, made our
lobbying efforts worthwhile.
Members of the Republican Senate and the
Democratic Assembly both played a large role in helping
us with these revisions to the Governor's original plan,
and I firmly believe that the Governor only agreed to
these items because of the support we have in both
houses.
Here
is a recap of the bill as presently written:
1) The major components of the bill are effective
April 1, 2012.
2) New employees in the police and fire retirement
system will contribute between 3% and 6 % of salary
toward their pension, based on their yearly rate.
The increases range from 3% for those making less
than $45,000 to 6% for those making more than $100,000.
3) The final average salary will now be based on a
five year average.
4) Overtime will count but there is a 10% cap for
pension purposes, this however should be better than
Tier V because it is based on total earnings whereas the
15% cap in Tier V is based on base salary.
5) No earnings over $179,000.00 will be included in
pension calculations. The cap is based on the current
Governor's salary. This
will be an issue as time goes on.
The problem is that the Governor's salary has not
been increased in 10 years, and lets face facts, it
could be another 10 years before it is increased.
Look at the Nassau County Legislators who still
make $39,000 a year because they are always reluctant to
face public criticism over increasing their
compensation. While
it is not a problem today, the provision that links
someone's pension to another person's salary seems to be
a stretch and I am sure we will have to deal with this
years down the road.
6) Increase the Military Buy-Back
from 3% to 6% of salary for each year purchased.
Not an effective way of saying thanks to our
veterans.
7) 20 Year retirement and 10 year vesting were
retained.
The provisions omitted from the
final version of the Governor's original bill were the
401K plan, a contribution plan based on the performance
of the fund, 12 year vesting, no overtime inclusion in
FAS, and the removal of a minimum contribution rate for
employers.
As a side note, the NYC Police & Fire were not
included in most parts of this plan and they will retain
their Tier III system which was put in place in 2009.
They did get an improvement in disability
pensions which will go to 50% of salary (from 44% in
original Tier III bill), but they will now have 5 year
pension average like Tier VI.
Their Tier III has greater contribution rates
than our system, and
the social security offset at age 62.
For those reason I believe that our new Tier VI
is actually the better plan, although neither compares
to the benefits that we all enjoy presently.
Most Importantly, as I have stated
numerous times before, no provisions of this plan will
be applied to any current employees.
While I will not say this was a great victory for
us, at least we walked away with enough of the pension
intact to still attract quality people to our
profession. When
Tier II was instituted it contained only a 60%
disability option and a 66% FAS, both of which we
improved by our lobbying efforts in Albany.
The improvements to 75% disability and 70% FAS,
along with other "sweeteners", as the Governor
likes to call them, to Tier II are what your Legislative
Committee does in Albany.
We will continue to try and improve all of our
pension plans as we move forward.
As
always, any questions on any of the above items please
call me at the office or email me at nassoa@aol.com
Legislation
Update – Albany
The first time I headed onto the
New York State Thruway for the ride to Albany as your
legislative representative was 10 years ago.
Back in 2002 we approached each session with
plans on how to improve our benefits from the previous
year. How quickly times change!
In recent years, with the unjustified onslaught
against pubic employee compensation, we find ourselves
concentrating on retaining what we have and preventing
any erosion to existing benefits.
This year will be no exception as the Governor
opened the session with his State of the State address,
in which he declared his intention to drastically change
the retirement system as we know it.
It was only two years ago that we were faced with
the establishment of the Tier V pension plan for all
state employees. When
originally introduced it was devastating.
However, we were able to negotiate many changes
that softened the blow.
While Tier V saw the establishment for the first
time of a contributory plan for the Police and Fire
System, we were able to maintain most of the other
benefits from Tier II.
Tier VI is much worse.
To give you an idea of how drastic a change the
Governor is proposing consider these provisions of the
new plan:
1)
Final average salary based
on your last 5 years (from current 3 years)
2)
No overtime included in FAS
3)
Introduction of a 401K
style plan as an option for state employees (Police and
Fire would have no disability or line of duty death
benefits under a 401K plan)
4)
Employee contribution rate
of between 4% and 6%, however if the employer rate goes
over 14% of salary (as it is now) the employee must make
up half the difference with no cap
5)
Take out the minimum
contribution rate of 4.5% for employers (not having this
in place in the past is the reason their rate is so high
now – so much for learning from past mistakes)
6)
Increase by-back for
military service from 3% to 6% of salary
7)
Surprisingly the 20 year
plan for Police and Fire was kept, we were fully
expecting a 25 year plan to be proposed.
I guess with all the above cuts there was no need
for further savings.
8)
Cap on all pensions of
$179,000 (the Governor’s salary).
Is this a plan to boost his salary or an ego
thing, as the Governor’s salary hasn’t been raised
in over 10 years? So
maybe this is only a negotiating tactic, I hope so!
I guess it is another way to get at all those
school superintendent salaries he often complains about
because as stated below this is well above the average
P&F pension in this state.
Sound like something you would
like to trade your pension in for?
I think not.
But unfortunately the business community and the
media will not be happy until they entirely gut your
pension plan. They
ignore the fact that the average NYS employee pension is
$19,000 a year, with the average Police/Fire pension at
$39,000 a year. The
simple truth is this, 30 years ago 84% of US workers at
medium to large US companies received a defined benefit
pension the same as we do, yet today that figure is only
30%. The
rest of the world now relies on 401K style plans,
something that were originally started as savings plans
to supplement a pension.
They were never designed to replace a pension but
business leaders soon found out they could save millions
by replacing their employees’ plan with a 401K, and
the money they save could go into their pocket.
So here we are in 2012, and most of the public
took a bath with their plans in the recent economic
downturn. Business
leaders now point to public sector worker’s pensions
and insinuate that these expenses are what are ruining
the economy. After
all, if they get us to accept a 401K plan then their own
employees will stop asking them for a defined benefit
plan. Unfortunately many politicians are jumping on the
bandwagon because of a slanted publicity campaign by
business/media groups that is attempting to sway public
opinion against us.
As one example of this the “Committee to Save
New York”, a group of very rich businessmen (you know,
the ones who pay 14% in income taxes), have spent a
record $14 million on lobbying and advertising this year
to help promote the Governor’s agenda which they hope
will eventually put more money in their pockets as
opposed to yours, not to mention the huge fees that are
generated by 401K plans for the investment groups.
We have our work cut out for us and will strive
to keep our benefits intact so as to not
ruin this job for future generations.
The people that came before us helped make this
job as good as it is today, I believe it is our duty to
continue the fight.
The Governor's decision to put the
above Tier VI proposal into the budget was intentionally
done to force Legislators to deal with this issue before
the April 1st budget deadline.
That, unfortunately, does not give us much time.
We have meetings set up next week with the
Governor’s counsel to go over key provisions of the
bill. We
have already started to meet with Legislative leaders to
voice our opposition; hopefully we will be able to make
some headway to minimize the damage.
We also have our full agenda of
bills that we propose every year as well as some new
issues we will address.
Listed below are some of the newer bills that I
have not mentioned before.
They will cover the following topics:
1)
A bill to grandfather in
members who received a permanent partial disability
status from Worker’s Comp before December of 2010, and
now are being denied chiropractic or physical therapy
treatment as originally guaranteed due to recent rule
changes.
2)
A bill to provide a ¾
disability pension for members on active military duty
who are wounded and unable to return to work (we
previously passed a bill for members killed in action
that gave them the same death benefits as if they
suffered a LOD death, but as of now there is no
provision for a ¾ disability pension).
3)
A bill to protect police
officers from harassment on the Internet for actions
taken in connection with their official duties.
4)
A bill to prevent an
Internet data base from publishing names and addresses
of police officers in regards to salary or pistol
permits.
5)
A bill to mandate the
issuance of a pistol permit to a retired police officer
without unnecessary delay, which seems to be a problem
in some upstate communities by local sheriff’s
offices.
State
of the County
What is new with the County?
Well, to put it briefly, as of this writing
nothing is new. I
know the PBA has been having constant discussions with
them in order to see if there is any room for compromise
in settling this pay freeze dispute but so far nothing
has happened. By
the time you read this article that might have all
changed but it doesn’t look overly promising.
But you can never tell, perhaps NIFA and the
County will come to their senses and work something out
but it seems like we might be just waiting for the
outcome of our lawsuit.
I think our position closely parallels the
PBA’s so we will have to see if they make any
progress.
As
always, any questions on any of the above items please
call me at the office or email me at nassoa@aol.com
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Election
Endorsements and Union Rally
First I would like to thank all of our members, both
active and retired, who showed up at the recent labor
rally to protest the introduction of the “Nassau
County Fiscal Crisis Reform Act”.
The mere thought of this law is so egregious to
all union members that people from all over the state
showed up to demonstrate their opposition.
I want to thank our brothers and sisters in the
union movement (fire, corrections, teachers, and CSEA)
for their attendance, especially the police unions that
showed up from NYPD, Suffolk PD, NYS Troopers, Port
Authority PD, MTA PD, as well various village, city, and
town departments from Nassau and Suffolk.
It was heartwarming to see the support we
received and are very happy that we can count on over
one million public sector employees throughout the state
to support us in this battle with our County Executive.
Moving on to the upcoming election, I am sure that
you have all received by now our PEC newsletter in the
mail with our recommendations for the County Legislature
and other local races.
These selections are repeated here in this issue
of the Gold Shield along with those of the Suffolk SOA
for our members residing out east.
We hope that you will consider our choices and
vote on Nov. 8th.
I imagine the one glaring difference in our
endorsements from prior elections is the fact that we
were unable to endorse any of the Republican Legislators
running except for one.
The reason was quite simple; it was the issue of
police layoffs and the Fiscal Crisis Reform Act.
We could not bring ourselves to endorse anyone
who would even consider layoffs at the present time, nor
anyone who would vote for unconstitutional laws.
The simple fact regarding layoffs is this: the
NCPD, during the mid 1970’s, hit our highest staffing
levels when we employed approximately 3900 sworn
members. Our head count today stands at 2390!
This department has been cut nearly in half
because of budget constraints.
When does the Legislature admit that we are at
our lowest possible staffing level?
Any police officer on this job can answer that
question; we are there now!
Only the Democratic candidates and one
Republican, Joe Belesi, stood up for what was right and
told us that they would not lay off police officers at
these staffing levels.
So what other options has the County Executive put
forward? Top
on the list is the “Fiscal Crisis Reform Act”, a law
to give the County Executive the power to throw out
contacts when he declares a fiscal crisis. The mere
suggestion of this was enough to bring thousands of
demonstrators from all over the state to the front lawn
of the County Legislative Building last week.
If the County Executive truly believes that this
bill is constitutional he should get it passed so we can
start the battle. The
end result will be the waste of more taxpayer dollars on
lawsuits, as he did with the re-districting lawsuit and
the Coliseum election.
Unfortunately his other suggestions include
closing precincts, laying off CSEA workers, and selling
County property. These
options will only result in the public receiving fewer
services than they do now.
People hate high taxes, but tax them without
delivering good services and they are really going to be
upset.
Many of the Republican candidates were friends
whom we had supported in the past, and it was a
difficult decision to go against them now.
However, it is the leaders of their delegation
putting forth these options and when they don’t stand
up to disagree with them we have to assume that they
agree with this nonsense.
Solidarity is great; just make sure the people
you are following know what they are doing!
The mantra of the Republican Party nationwide has
seemed to evolve into “the fiscal crisis is all the
public employees’ fault”, while discounting all
other government spending.
We had hoped the Nassau Republicans were above
this but, led by the County Executive, this appears to
be their position. Sooner
or later I believe that the Republicans will realize
that they are turning off many blue-collar workers who
had supported them in the past.
To me the most extreme example of this is that
the Republicans, who always touted themselves as the law
and order party, would be willing to rip up contracts
that were legally negotiated.
What happened to abiding by the law of the land?
It is very disappointing to me that someone would
throw out their core beliefs in order to save their job.
The one thing I admire about the Democrats is
that they are not afraid to buck their own party if they
do not believe in the message.
Maybe this is something that the Republicans need
to learn. All
this being said we have told the County Executive, time
and time again, that we were willing to work with him to
get them through the rough times.
But we are unwilling to be the only solution to a
problem that we did not create, and when he finally
becomes reasonable we are more than willing to listen.
Unfortunately, as the rhetoric heats up, it will
become more difficult than ever to come to terms.
It took years with our last County Executive, who
used the same tactic of negotiating contracts in the
press, to realize this does not work.
Maybe we need to tone down those press releases
Ed!
Please review our endorsements and we ask you and
your family members to seriously consider our choices
and vote on Election Day.
This is one election that you cannot afford to
sit out!
Legislation Update - Albany
Here is a quick update for you on our bills
that were passed during the 2011 session that I had no
disposition for in the last Gold Shield report.
Of the ten major pieces sent to the Governor’s
desk we managed to get nine signed into law, an outcome
that we were obviously very pleased with.
In addition to the four reported signed in my
last report here are the results:
1) S5651/A7834
Retirement notice 30-15 days – Changes the
minimum filing time required to submit your retirement
papers to the state from 30 days to 15 – signed by
Governor on 8/3/11 Chapter 375
2) S5653/A5744A
NYPD 20 year guarantee – Guarantees NYPD
members their pension after 20 years except for felony
conviction for crimes related to their employment –
signed by Governor on 9/23/11 Chapter 514 – big win
for the NYPD members.
3) S5658/A8456A
Black Powder Bill – adds black powder firearms
to the list of firearms prohibited for possession by
felons (the NY State Police have had two Troopers
recently killed
by felons armed with black powder rifles) –
signed by Governor on 8/3/11 Chapter 357
4) S5234A/A7751A
Califano memorial bridge – names the L.I.E.
overpass near the site of P.O. Michael Califano’s
death in his name – signed by Governor on 8/3/11
Chapter 312
5) S5837/A7605A
Tier V pre tax contributions – changes
contributions by Tier V members to pre-tax dollars, they
are currently deducted post tax.
This change gives them equity with all other
pension plans that require contributions – signed by
Governor on 9/23/11 Chapter 525
6) S5098/ A4954
Civil service health insurance guarantee -
guarantees your health insurance when out on a line of
duty injury – Vetoed by the Governor, veto message 60.
This was our one major disappointment.
We will continue to work on this bill next year.
As always, any questions on any
of the above items please call me at the office or email
me at nassoa@aol.com
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